Steven F. Songer

Steven Frederick Songer was born in 1947. He is a watercolorist, painter in oil, and illustrator. He lives in Huntsville, Utah.

Songer earned a BS in commercial art in 1971, and another in art education in 1973 from Weber State College. He earned an MFA at Utah State University under the guidance of Harrison Groutage. Songer was also a fellow at the Royal Academy of Art in London during the winter of 1989.

He has illustrated many publications including The Santa Book, Joseph Smith, the Boy Prophet, and The Will Rogers Cookbook. He left teaching in 1997 to pursue a full-time professional career as a landscape painter in the color-impressionistic style. LibertyPatchwork (1997) is a vibrant example of his work.

Perhaps the best way to describe Steve Songer is well rounded, in both his art and his personal life. He is an artist, a teacher, an outdoors man, and a community leader. Artistically, he works in a variety of media and creates commercial as well as fine art.

Steve Songer was born in 1947. Like many artists, he doesn't remember ever not being interested in art. He received two Bachelor's degrees from Weber State University, one in Commercial Art in 1971 and one in Art Education in 1973. Later he attended Utah State University and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Painting. In 1989, he studied at the Royal Academy of Art in London. He currently lives in Huntsville, Utah.

Songer began his art career in commercial art as a designer for Marveon Sign Company. Since then he has illustrated the cover for the Will Roger's Cookbook, designed the Model Railroad Museum at Union Station in Ogden, Utah, and co-authored and illustrated the Santa Claus Book.

He has recently retired from a twenty-five year career teaching high school and will now devote himself full time to his art. As a teacher he received many awards including Utah State University's Art Teacher of the Year in 1985, competing with candidates from a four-state area. In 1988 he was Teacher of the Year for the Weber School District as well as first runner up for Utah Teacher of the Year. In 1991, Songer was chosen as US WEST's outstanding Teacher of the Year.

Although now retired, Songer's interest in education continues, and he hopes teachers will devise activities to help students learn how to think and to solve problems. Songer also has received many awards for his artwork. These include 1st place in the Eccles statewide competition and the Award of Merit from the Utah Watercolor Society. He won the Director's Award in the 73rd Utah Spring Salon at the Springville Art Museum in 1997. His paintings are in private collections throughout the United States and Europe, and he has been featured in 11 one-man shows.

To complete the picture of this well-rounded artist, Songer is also a community leader. He has been a scout leader for ten years, and is on the board of directors for the Ogden Union Station, the Huntsville Waterworks Corporation, and the Eccles Community Center in Ogden. In addition, he is chairman of the Huntsville Tree Committee. Other activities include chaperoning student tours through Europe, working on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska, and camping with his wife and children.

Steve Songer paints many landscapes, partly because he has such good access to stimulating scenes. His early works were Realistic and Representational, but now he is more interested in texture, brushstrokes, the paint surface, and the shapes. In their promotional material, the Gallery Etc in Ogden, which sells his work, describes how his " ability to paint with clean brushwork and color and his deft handling of light create an instant appeal as well as staying power." These qualities can be seen in his Liberty Patchwork, which is described by the artist as a scene he enjoys every day on his way to work, the morning sun stretching across the fields of Ogden Valley.

Songer is currently working on a series of boat paintings. He just completed a painting of the Grande Canal in Venice from a sketch he did 15 years ago. He continues to make sketches of various types of boats for this series. Songer's only goal for the future is just to continue to paint.